This one was a letdown. I really liked the setting and the idea of the story - young women having their bodies degrade and their bones change to rusted metal sounded gnarly AF! But the body horror aspect never really came through.
The description of the Rust Maidens was weak and I struggled to get much horror from the book, despite the gory-sounding premise. I was hoping for a bit of a metal/flesh Hellraiser vibe but the writing was flat and boring. Also the rest of the characters had very blah reactions to these women turning into metal and broken glass...I quite liked the idea of them seeing the girls as more of an inconvenience/ over reaction, but they never reacted with much horror to them and just took it in their stride, which I think made the creepy potential fall flat.
The main character, Phoebe, was pretty annoying. I was intrigued by the present day/younger days telling of the story, but Phoebe herself was constantly moaning, turning down help, and generally hating everyone she knew.
I was really looking forward to some grim body horror, but this book just didn't deliver.